Saddest/most affecting movies?

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Ledhed

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I just watched Schindler's List. No matter how many times I watch it, I always cry. Some movies just do that to me. What films affect you deeply, not necessarily to the point of tears, but affect you in an overwhelming way? Just curious. :wink:
 
E.T. does it every freaken time. When they find him lying in the ditch.......I lose it. I must've seen it 50 times ant every time I see it, i need tissues.......I'm such a baby.
 
[quote name='jmcc']Grave of Fireflies.[/quote]

That was in my mind as well when I made the topic.

The part that gets me in S's L is when he's saying goodbye to his workers and they give him the ring. He starts to think about how many more people he could have saved, and breaks down. I tear up every time.
 
[quote name='jmcc']Grave of Fireflies.[/quote]

I'm not into the whole manga/anime thing, but I did see this movie. If anyone hasnt seen it, check it out. Be warned though, it's not really a feel good movie.......but great none the less.
 
Life is Beautiful, Cinema Paradiso, In America, and Saving Private Ryan (kinda tough for me to choose that one, but the cemetery scenes are both powerful for me).
 
[quote name='guessed']I'm not afraid/ashamed to cry. Joy Luck Club makes me cry, and I always cry at Delores Claiborne.[/quote]
I just saw JLC a month ago, and the final scene brought me to the crying "threshold."
 
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't think I actually cried, but I was depressed for a week or two after seeing it. One of the best and most depressing movies ever.. unless you're currently not single, but it's not a good idea when you're going through the longest single-streak of your life (it's been like six weeks. ahhhhh)

A Walk To Remember and Where The Heart Is are both depressing, and both chick flicks. I watched the first for Mandy Moore and the latter for Natalie Portman. I want to see Garden State, I'll have to wait for the DVD on that one though, since they took it out of theatres here.. but I heard that that's more humorous than sad..

EDIT: Good call on Patch Adams. 4 years of medical classes in high school, so that makes it all the more sadder.
 
This is easy.

The Day After (not the recent Day After Tomorrow)

The Day After is a movie that includes John Lithgow and Steve Guttenberg. It is a story about nuclear war. The premise is that residents in Kansas get hit with bombs (as well as other places).
The special effects of when the bomb hit are so-so (the movie was made in 1983), but the after effects of radiation poisoning are what really make you think. It was so sad to see all those people suffering. Plus, the anarchy that followed was terrible. It was a powerful film IMO. It can be found for $9.99 (I got mine at Best Buy). Along with Schindler's List it is probably the saddest film I ever saw.
 
I'd definetly have to go with Life as a House, American Beauty definetly coming in a very close second. American Beauty is the only movie I've ever watched twice in a row, the first time I saw it I had to see it right away again.
 
A few notables for me...

Immortal Beloved - not to the point of tears, but still a great love story.

full agreement with Grave of the Fireflies - wow.

Amalie - for it's presentation and style

Personally, I tend not to watch a lot of drama, but I really enjoy films that manage to make me uncomfortable - which in an age of desensitization is a rarity for me...a few that rank high for me are...

Eraserhead - a classic
Tetsuo the Iron Man - a modern classic
All Night Long Vol. 3 - sickest stalker film ever
The Guinea Pig Experiement Vol. 1 (w. Samauri) - they tried to ban this one - many people thought it was a snuff film!
The Untold Story - based on true events, and just unrelentingly brutal

Most of these would fall into the horror category, but they all really push it over the edge into complete psychological dementia. Recommened only if you like feeling EXTREMELY uncomfortable when you watch a film.
 
Although I've little affection for baseball I did lose my father just before my thirteenth birthday, so Field of Dreams makes my tearjerker list.

more recently I saw a film called 'My First Mister' that was prime tearjerker material.
 
Within the first 15 minutes of, What Dreams May Come, I am totally sad.

No matter how many times I see it.

Then, throughout the entire film, you watch a man find his family again.....
Oh my, I'm getting all choked up thinking of it.

This is definitely one of my favorite movies of all time,.... and it's very emotional.
If you haven't seen this one, you're missing out on an all around epic.

The music, the cast, the story, the insight,... just everything a movie should be.
 
The movie that made me cry alot when i was younger was a movie called "The Elephant Man". It stars John Hurt and (pre-Silence of the Lambs) Anthony Hopkins.

For some reason, this movie resonated with me for the longest time.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']Schindler, ET when hes all white and dying, Old Yeller, I Am Sam, maybe one or two more[/quote]

Yeah, I Am Sam was a lot better than I expected. Dakota Fanning's performance really blew me away.
 
Grave of Fireflies and Schindler's List should both really be shown in any history class covering WWII, time allowing.
 
Schindler's List is definately one... what about My Life with Michael Keaton/Nichole Kidman. I remember seeing people leaving the theatre in tears after they watched it.
 
Gladiator.

Saving Private Ryan.

Passion.

Signs. It didn't make me cry. It just messed me up for a while. I still can't hear that clicking noise without the hair on the back of my neck standing up.
 
[quote name='drone8888']Within the first 15 minutes of, What Dreams May Come, I am totally sad.

No matter how many times I see it.

Then, throughout the entire film, you watch a man find his family again.....
Oh my, I'm getting all choked up thinking of it.

This is definitely one of my favorite movies of all time,.... and it's very emotional.
If you haven't seen this one, you're missing out on an all around epic.

The music, the cast, the story, the insight,... just everything a movie should be.[/quote]
I would have put that, but they completely botched the last 20 minutes of that movie...The only sad thing about that movie is the fact that it could have been one of the greats in the nineties.
 
Being a father, almost any movie that has a child die always gets me. My wife thinks that Hope Floats and Jersey Girl are sad. When Affleck put the picture of J-Lo on the babies mobile, she just lost it.
 
[quote name='oracrest']Happiness. Messed me up for a few days.[/quote]

i was going to mention that.

another one is "dancer in the dark". now there, is one heck of a depressing movie.

"the hours". i've met a lot of people that have think it's a chick movie, but it's not. virtually everyone in the movie hates their life. it rules.

i watched "cries and whispers" a while ago, and that's pretty depressing too. it doesn't help that the movie moves really slow, so by the end you feel like killing yourself. it's pretty good.

i thought "21 grams" was pretty sad, too.
 
When I was a kid, I would always cry in The Neverending Story when
R-Tax dies. For some reason the Last Samurai was REALLY upsetting to me at the end. I find I get emotional when someone or something very unique dies in a movie. I watched Man on the Moon for the second time this weekend and it totally made me break up.
 
Damn, all these recommendations for Grave of the Fireflies makes me want to see it even more now.

One I haven't seen mentioned yet was Philadelphia. I've seen it twice, once in a 10th grade science class (i think biology, but can't remember at this point) and a second time a few months ago. I didn't cry either time, but it did a very good job of portraying just how scared the general public was during the early part of the AIDS scare.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't think I actually cried, but I was depressed for a week or two after seeing it. One of the best and most depressing movies ever.. unless you're currently not single, but it's not a good idea when you're going through the longest single-streak of your life (it's been like six weeks. ahhhhh)

A Walk To Remember and Where The Heart Is are both depressing, and both chick flicks. I watched the first for Mandy Moore and the latter for Natalie Portman. I want to see Garden State, I'll have to wait for the DVD on that one though, since they took it out of theatres here.. but I heard that that's more humorous than sad..

EDIT: Good call on Patch Adams. 4 years of medical classes in high school, so that makes it all the more sadder.[/quote]

Your longest single streak is 6 weeks? Might I kill you now? I'm going on 9 months right now officially, although the 'relationship' that began this was sorta...weird. Been a good 2+ years since my last real, good relationship.

That said, Eternal Sunshine is an absolutely awesome movie.
 
Brian's song, man that must be the saddest movie ever. I would also second Saving Private Ryan in the graveyard.
 
I was gonna mention My Life, but someone beat me too it. A very good movie, and one of Michael Keaton's last greats imo.

Awakenings is another one I refuse to watch again because it's so freakin' depressing. What's with Robin Williams & depressing movies, anyway? :p
 
[quote name='Ledhed']I just watched Schindler's List. No matter how many times I watch it, I always cry. Some movies just do that to me. What films affect you deeply, not necessarily to the point of tears, but affect you in an overwhelming way? Just curious. :wink:[/quote]

I'll never see Schindler's List again. When I first saw it I was blown away by it's power and it made me quite depressed. It was great, but not at the cost of putting me in a funk.
 
Platoon and Schindler's List were the most recent movies that affected me that way.
I also balled my eyes out as a kid to E.T. and Old Yeller and can also remember crying at the part in the Benji movie when the dude kicked him.
 
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